Abstract

Alexithymia refers to difficulties identifying feelings (DIF), describing feelings (DDF), and externally orientated thinking (EOT). Originally conceptualized by American psychiatrists, some researchers have since questioned the validity and application of this construct in Asian cultures. However, to date, there is little empirical work formally assessing the invariance of alexithymia across Asian and Western cultures. The present study aimed to help address this gap, by examining the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of two alexithymia measures, the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ) and Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20), across samples from Singapore (n = 434) or Australia (n = 489). The same theoretically congruent factor structure was supported across both samples; this structure was fully invariant across samples for the PAQ, and partially invariant for the TAS-20. Both measures had good internal consistency and concurrent validity across samples, except the TAS-20 EOT subscale which had low internal consistency and factor loadings in both samples. The Singaporean sample reported higher DIF and DDF for positive emotions than the Australian sample. Overall, our results support the cross-cultural validity and application of the alexithymia construct. The PAQ and TAS-20 both appear to have good utility in this respect, though the PAQ may provide a more detailed facet-level profile.

摘要

述情障碍是指难以识别感受 (DIF)、描述感受 (DDF) 和外向思维 (EOT)。最初由美国精神病学家概念化，一些研究人员质疑这种结构在亚洲文化中的有效性和应用。然而，迄今为止，很少有实证研究正式评估亚洲和西方文化中述情障碍的不变性。本研究旨在通过检查两种述情障碍测量的心理测量特性和测量不变性来帮助解决这一差距，即珀斯述情障碍问卷 (PAQ) 和多伦多述情障碍量表 20 (TAS-20)，样本来自新加坡 (n = 434  ) ) 或澳大利亚 ( n = 489）。两个样本都支持相同的理论上一致的因子结构；这种结构对于 PAQ 的样本是完全不变的，对于 TAS-20 是部分不变的。除了 TAS-20 EOT 子量表在两个样本中的内部一致性和因子负荷较低之外，这两种测量都具有良好的内部一致性和跨样本的同时有效性。新加坡样本报告的积极情绪的 DIF 和 DDF 高于澳大利亚样本。总体而言，我们的结果支持述情障碍结构的跨文化有效性和应用。PAQ 和 TAS-20 在这方面似乎都有很好的实用性，尽管 PAQ 可能会提供更详细的刻面级配置文件。